Volume 6 - issue 2 - 2010

Since the inception of Seminar.net the phenomenon of Digital Storytelling has often been suggested as a promising genre for teaching and learning in a variety of areas. Academically, the genre has attracted interest from scholars in media studies, political science, social work, health and education. In this issue we have sought attention from a huge number of academically inclined persons who either use the genre to teach with media, for teaching and learning about media, or studying how this specific way of working with media offers new possibilities for the articulation of the voice of the common people.

Monica Nilsson, at the University of Stockholm, discusses digital storytelling in this article. A digital story is defined as a multimodal narrative text comprising pictures, music, speech, sound and script. In the article she describes and analyzes a nine year old boy´s digital stories and argues that new media, here as digital storytelling, has the potential to play a significant role in the development of both literacy and creativity.

Anne Mette Bjørgen looks at how digital storytelling in an educational setting may have potential to build and develop learning identities, agency and digital competences in her article: “Boundary crossing and learning identities – digital storytelling in primary schools”.

Grete Jamissen and Goro Skou work at the University College of Oslo. In their article, “ Poetic reflection through digital storytelling – a methodology to foster professional health worker identity in students”, they focus the role of personal narratives, multimedia and the creative process in developing identity and voice. The project reviewed in their paper identifies contexts in higher education where digital storytelling may be used as a promising tool to support students’ learning, assisting them to combine theory and practical experience in their field of study.

Sarah Copeland, of Leeds metropolitan University and Clodagh Miskelly, independent producer contribute with an article called: “Making time for storytelling; the challenges of community building and activism in a rural locale”. Their topic is how to engage prospective participants with using digital storytelling as a challenge in itself. Motivating and arguing for this way of expressing a voice has a better chance for success when one considers the various practical barriers that one meets when employing community media. They argue that an open discussion of projects that are less successful will enhance our practice and our understanding of processes intended to enable social change.

Aneta Podkalicka, Swinburne University and Craig Campbell, Salvation Army of Melbourne contribute with the article: “Understanding digital storytelling: individual ‘voice’ and community-building in youth media programs”. Their topic is empowerment for marginalised voices across community-based projects worldwide. The paper discusses uses but also limitations of the practice in the context of a Melbourne-based youth media program for ‘youth at risk’ called YouthWorx.

Seminar.net is an open access journal. The articles published in seminar.net are immediately accessible for all, in its full and authentic format. There is no charge for covering expenses for publication. The journal supports a Creative Commons Attribution-license which allows other users to share the work when acknowledging the author and first publication in this journal.

Review of the national digital survey

Monitor 2011(Egeberg, 2012) is a submission on the fifth quantitative survey of the Norwegian digital health situation completed by Egeberg et al. The survey is a qualified comparison foundation with international surveys on digital competence such as, e.g. PISA. Since 2003, the digital surveys have been completed every other year in Norway to identify indications on schools' digital state. The respondents who were chosen are a selection of school leaders, teachers and student in the 8th and 9th grades and level two in upper secondary school. The submissions research and results are also organized according to these three areas of participants.

Knut Lundby (red.)

We live in an age in which more and more of us are creating our own "digital stories". In 2008, 18% of Norwegian 16-24 year olds were recorded as being active bloggers over the previous three months (Statistics Norway, "ICT in households", 2nd quarter 2008) while more than 2/3 of American teenagers have uploaded self-produced material to the Internet, in the form of YouTube videos, photographs, blogs, stories, remixes etc. (Pew Internet). The numbers of these "user-made" cultural productions are growing year by year and spreading from the younger generation to us adults, who are now the group most increasingly represented on Facebook. In blogs and on Facebook the distinction between amateur and professional is largely meaningless.

John Hartley and Kelly McWilliam (eds.)

Reviewed byBirte HatleholPhD student in Media EducationNorwegian University of Science and TechnologyEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The anthology Story Circle is an international study of digital storytelling that discusses the phenomenon in a global context. The book contains 20 articles with contributions from a number of key specialists with wide-ranging experience in the field of DST.

Edited by Heidi Philipsen and Lars Qvortrup

Reviewed by Stephen Dobson Professor Lillehammer University College Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Introduction Two questions can be asked: firstly, not do we need another book on remediation, but why? And secondly, if this is the case, what kind of book should it be? This review spirals around these questions.

Department of Education, Mid Sweden University
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Dr. Anders D. Olofsson
Department of Education, Umeå University
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It seems suitable to begin this review by giving a brief description of the context in which the texts of this book are produced. If it fails to be regarded as a description, then we hope at least it can be regarded as one possible understanding of the context. When contextualizing a book, a good idea seems to be to start with a few words about the editor, Alison A. Carr-Chellman.